One Week With: 2017 Audi R8 V10 Spyder

The do-it-all wonder car. Some oldsters search for it, like Ponce De León after the Fountain of Youth. Others claim anathema: The jack of all trades is the master of none, the harp. Both are proper, and both are incorrect. The evidence? The ten-cylinder, carbon-and-aluminum 2017 Audi R8 V10 Spyder.

As a cargo hauler, human beings move, or canine transporter, the R8 is terrible. Three luggage of groceries? I hope you want to eat in the parking zone because the best are going domestic with you—score one for the no penis.

However, as a convertible sports activities automobile, the R8 is first-rate, and now, it is not just because of its mid-engine balance, 540 hp, and 398 lb-ft of torque on tap. It’s not even amazing due to its 3.5-second 0-60 mph time or race-bred pedigree. In truth, it’s incredible because of everything else.

First, you must examine it because, unlike the preceding R8 Spyder, this one appears super whether the top is up or down. Add to the already comely outdoors styling a wonderful Ibis white paint job, a carbon-laced and diamond-stitched pink leather interior, and the carbon outside appearance package deal, and it’s a head-turner earlier than you ever pay attention to the engine word.

A sports automobile of the route, and particularly a top-notch sports car, must cope well. The R8 Spyder does — incredibly so. Its edge for road use isn’t any less razor-sharp than its hardtop alternative, the R8 coupe. And allow’s face it, irrespective of what top your R8 has, it’s in no way going to be eking out the last tenth of a 2d for the win at your local membership race (and if it is, you should purchase an Audi client racing automobile, or as a minimum a Spec Miata).

But desirable coping with and masses of strength are just the charges of access inside the top echelon of the wearing car world. What makes the R8 Spyder special?

The enjoy.

I realize that appears like millennial advertising hogwash, but with the pinnacle down, the five.2-liter V10’s operatic crescendo in the back of you and a very good street, the dividing line among the device’s bloodless, elemental edges and the juicy meat pod within the driving force’s seat first blurs, then disappears altogether.

Those aren’t the car’s tires on the road; they’re your arms and feet. That’s no longer the auto’s engine; that’s your roar as you jump down the straights, apexes, your gazelles. Chomp, chomp.

But in contrast to Takeru Kobayashi with a barrel full of hot dogs, you’re not stuffing your gullet for money, reputation, or information. You’re doing it for natural pleasure, the thrill of the quest itself.

Eventually, you’ll decide to put it off for some time and enjoy the trip — or your passenger’s green expression will make the selection for you. That will double if you’re within the canyons of Angeles National Forest.

Ranging from stark, rocky xeriscapes to fog-shrouded, moody, inexperienced echo chambers, the San Gabriel mountains host now not simply the national forest but Angeles Crest Highway and Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road — playgrounds now not just for the R8 Spyder’s V-10 and mid-engine stability, but for the drop pinnacle’s slower-paced, scenic side.

Put the drive mode selector in Comfort (or Auto, in case you have to), lean the seat returned (if the bulkhead will permit you to — my lengthy-legged 6’2” body left me sitting fairly upright, even though nevertheless relaxed), and go searching. There’s greater to lifestyles than checkered flags and finish strains. For one, your passenger is barely awkwardly seated inside the limited adjustment of the proper hand seat. Impeccable journey first-class, or a beautiful infotainment system established solely in the front of the driving force — Audi’s Virtual Cockpit — for any other. Surprisingly, there is little wind buffeting with the pinnacle down and windows up if you need a third.

While a neon-green Lamborghini Huracan or a pink-over-tan Ferrari 488 can scratch adolescent inches, the R8 Spyder is the open-pinnacle supercar for adults. That’s no longer to mention that it’s dull; it’s simply that it’s exciting for its ease of use, now not its penalty field real-world use revels in. In a world packed with manufacturing facility “race” versions and 1,000-hp hybrids, it’s easy to get lost within the greater, greater, extra, and overlooked aspect each automobile needs to do before it does whatever else: be an automobile.

Let’s face it: a long weekend road journey in many supercars is often more like a protracted weekend in Gitmo than a spa retreat — as your large difference has simply knowledgeable those who’ve tried it. Where the Italians, amongst others, put on the cache of use like a badge of honor, the R8 Spyder skips the Cub Scout horseplay and cuts instantly to the enterprise of being a terrific vehicle in addition to a supercar.

Can you back down and experience the cruise in a hard-crowned R8 or any other enclosed supercar? Sure. Will it be amusing? Absolutely. Are there other, more “individual” supercars with pinnacle-down capability? Duh, of the route there are. But nothing fits the smooth pleasure of dancing the R8 Spyder’s robot pinnacle returned, being attentive to the purr of the V-10 engine at half-drowse, smiling at whoever’s lucky enough to be in the passenger seat, and simply playing the drive.